How the heck do people get started investing in NYC?

[Anne N.]

Hello all! I am a native New Yorker and I am just now in a position where I can seriously start saving for a down payment on a home. I currently have only $10,000 set aside which--in this city--is a paltry sum.

I used to work for an extremely well known NY real estate scion (last name starts with W and ends with two Fs) and he would always talk about how he got his start buying homes in Washington Heights and the Bronx. If I recall correctly, his first purchase was a 32-unit apartment building.

Now my question is this: how in the heck does anyone start investing in real estate by buying a 32-unit building in New York today? Or even just a two family! It simply seems impossible unless you are already extremely wealthy. Or am I just looking in the wrong places? I would imagine I'd need 500k down for a multi unit apartment building and that will take me forever to save. In the '70s those areas were plagued with economic and social blight and while I in no way want the era of the fiscal crisis to come back in this city, I can't help but feel bad that in this town, real estate is prohibitively expensive, especially when it comes to multifamilies. On top of that, NYC is the land of the co-op, and they are hard to invest in so we're stuck with ridiculous expensive SFHs and multi units, or co-ops you can't rent out due to maintenance fees being high and co-op boards being strict.

So how does someone start today in NYC? Is it better to look into other cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Philly, St. Louis and Indianapolis?